China's lunar 3D printing tech paves way for moon ‘houses'
He revealed that the system uses a high-precision reflective concentrator and flexible fiber-optic energy transmission to achieve temperatures hot enough to fuse lunar regolith. 'This printing breakthrough has validated the feasibility of using lunar soil as the sole raw building material, enabling true in-situ resource utilization and eliminating the need to transport any additional materials from Earth,' he said. Also among the printing system's key innovations is flexible manufacturing, which enables brick production and the customized molding of complex structures.
A preliminary test of the prototype's lunar regolith forming process has been completed on the ground surface. Tests of its ability to melt and form lines, surfaces, bodies and complex structures have also been completed, and tests of the technical feasibility of the prototype's solar concentrating technology, optical fiber bundle energy transmission and lunar regolith melting system have been systematically completed. In the early stages of the research team's work, the core challenge was achieving reliable solar energy concentration and regolith shaping under the extreme conditions of the lunar environment.
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Arab Times
6 days ago
- Arab Times
Astronomers discover hidden alien planet 35 times heavier than Earth
NEW YORK, July 16: Astronomers have uncovered a previously undetected alien planet, Kepler-139f, by analyzing the orbits of known planets within the Kepler-139 star system. This hidden exoplanet is about twice the mass of Neptune and 35 times the mass of Earth, taking approximately 355 days to orbit its host star. The discovery was published on May 2, 2025, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Kepler-139f had managed to remain elusive due to limitations in early detection methods used by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. Kepler, which identified nearly 3,000 exoplanets over its nine-year mission, primarily detected planets that passed directly between their star and Earth, causing a brief dimming of the star's light. This allowed scientists to identify the size of these planets. However, Kepler could not detect planets that were positioned above or below the line of sight of the telescope, meaning some planets remained hidden. However, because Kepler-139 is home to multiple planets, astronomers had the opportunity to search for worlds outside of Kepler's original detection range. The system was known to contain three rocky super-Earths that transit their star, and later, a fourth gas giant was discovered. Astronomers observed gaps in the orbits of these planets, suggesting the presence of an additional, unseen world. By studying these orbital gaps in detail, scientists were able to infer the existence of Kepler-139f. "The challenge isn't in finding non-transiting planets but in identifying situations where we can deduce the location of these hidden worlds," explained Caleb Lammers, a graduate student at Princeton University and co-author of the study. "It was through precise measurements of the known planets' orbits, including radial velocity (RV) and transit timing variations (TTVs), that we could infer the existence of Kepler-139f." The RV technique measures the gravitational pull a planet exerts on its host star, helping astronomers determine the planet's mass. Additionally, TTVs—subtle variations in the timing of transits of known planets—can indicate the presence of other planets that don't transit the star themselves. Lammers and his colleague, Joshua Winn, an astrophysicist at Princeton and participating scientist on the Kepler mission, worked together to identify these gaps in the system. Using a combination of RV and TTV measurements, the pair discovered Kepler-139f nestled between the outermost super-Earth and a gas giant in the system. Kepler-139f's discovery also provided clarity on the previously puzzling density of Kepler-139c, the outermost super-Earth in the system. The earlier density readings were incorrectly influenced by the pull of the hidden planet, but with Kepler-139f identified, the team revised the data, providing more typical density values for Kepler-139c. The discovery raises the possibility that other unseen planets may be lurking in the Kepler-139 system. "There may still be other undiscovered planets in the system, especially given the prominent gap between planets b and c," said Lammers. "The challenge now is to find them." While the Kepler and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) missions have been adept at detecting planets closer to their stars—where transits are more frequent and easier to observe—planets further away with wider orbits present more difficulties. Additionally, the RV method is more effective for detecting larger, more massive planets due to their stronger gravitational influence. This bias toward larger worlds has made it harder to detect smaller, more distant planets, particularly those that don't transit their stars. To combat these challenges, astronomers are combining multiple methods—transits, RVs, and TTVs—to identify smaller, hidden planets. "It's likely that many planetary systems host unseen worlds, particularly in their outer regions," Lammers added. Looking ahead, the European Space Agency's upcoming PLATO mission, launching in 2026, will provide an even more powerful tool for detecting these hidden planets. PLATO will survey transiting planets and revisit the Kepler field, refining TTV measurements and boosting the potential for discovering more misaligned and hidden worlds. "In the near future, TTV-based planet detection is expected to accelerate significantly with the PLATO mission," Lammers concluded.
Arab Times
14-07-2025
- Arab Times
Telescope hunts Big Bang's oldest ripples
BEIJING, July 14, (Xinhua): High on a ridge 5,250 meters above sea level in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, a new eye onto the infant universe has blinked open. Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced Sunday that their AliCPT-1 telescope has captured its first crisp images of the moon and Jupiter at 150 GHz, a milestone that marks the formal opening of China's first hunt for primordial gravitational waves. The ripples -- faint whispers from the dawn of time -- may hold the key to explaining how the universe began. Imagine the universe as a newborn; the primordial gravitational waves would be its very first cry. Born from quantum fluctuations in spacetime during the epoch of cosmic inflation, these elusive signals are the most pristine ripples ever etched into the fabric of the cosmos. Primordial gravitational-wave detection is believed to be a critical test of cosmic origin, probing inflation and quantum gravity. 'If we successfully detect primordial gravitational waves, we will glimpse the universe in its very first instant,' said Zhang Xinmin, a researcher at the IHEP. 'At the same time, it can drive breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies like cryogenic superconducting detectors and low-temperature readout electronics, thus propelling cosmology into an era of unprecedented precision,' Zhang added. Led by the IHEP, the telescope was built in eight years by a 16-member global consortium including China's National Astronomical Observatories and Stanford University. Placed on the roof of the world, the telescope is designed to escape atmospheric water vapor that would drown the whisper of primordial gravitational waves. Only four sites on Earth are known to be viable for such observations: Antarctica, Chile's Atacama Desert, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Greenland, said Liu Congzhan, a project manager of the telescope experiment. The moon and Jupiter experiment is just the beginning, said Li Hong, also a researcher at IHEP. 'As the Northern Hemisphere's first high-altitude primordial gravitational-wave observatory, the telescope fills a gap for China and, together with devices in Antarctica and Chile, completes a global, complementary network.'
Arab Times
10-07-2025
- Arab Times
AI-powered flash flood alert mini-program launched in SW China province
CHENGDU, July 10, (Xinhua): An AI-powered precision early warning system for flash floods and debris flows in the mountainous Sichuan Province in southwest China has been officially launched to the public via a WeChat mini-program, offering real-time risk monitoring and alerts. Developed by the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, the system integrates multi-departmental real-time data, including geological surveys and meteorological observations, across all flood-prone ravines in the province, Science and Technology Daily reported on Thursday. It employs high-precision rainfall forecasting models to provide dynamic short-term predictions covering the past hour and the following two hours, significantly improving forecast accuracy ahead of the flood season from late July to early August, according to the report. The mini-program generates 24-hour, 12-hour and 2-hour risk maps, delivering warnings via SMS, WeChat and the emergency response systems. "People can check live monitoring footage, rainfall data, forecasts and hazard warnings to make informed evacuation decisions," said Ouyang Chaojun, an IMHE researcher. "They can also upload photos of emerging risks to help local governments evaluate the risks and respond," Ouyang added. Powered by efficient algorithms and the National Supercomputing Center in Chengdu, the system significantly improves the accuracy of rainfall predictions and the efficiency of disaster simulations in mountainous areas. Since its trial launch in May in the city of Mianyang, where it monitors all 676 ravines, the system has issued 2,034 warnings, successfully forecasting debris flows and flash floods.
